Smoke, steam, ashes, and cinders were tossed into the air and
whirled about by fierce winds--sometimes spreading out like a fan,
but every moment changing both their form and colour. The stream of
lava from the fountain flowed to a distance of about thirty-five
miles. The scene was altogether terrific--the fierce red glare of
the lava--the flames from the burning trees--the great volumes of
smoke and steam--the loud underground explosions and thunderings,--
all combined to overpower the senses, and fill the mind with
indescribable awe.

A remarkable volcanic chain runs along the northern and western
margins of the Pacific Ocean. It embraces the Aleutian Islands, the
peninsula of Kamtschatka, the Kurile, the Japanese, and the
Philippine Islands. The most interesting are the volcanoes of
Kamtschatka, in which there is an oft-renewed struggle between
opposing forces--the snow and glaciers predominating for a while,
to be in their turn overpowered by torrents of liquid fire.




CHAPTER IX.

Atolls, or Coral Islands--Their strange Appearance--Their
Connexion with Volcanoes--Their Mode of Formation--Antarctic
Volcanoes--Diatomaceous Deposits


To the southward of the Sandwich Islands, on the other side of the
equator, there is a large group of islands in the Pacific, which